Abstract
Touchscreen-based phones can be challenging for people with visual impairment. These phones require special features to cater to their needs when it comes to a developing country’s perspective like Bangladesh. The interface needs to remain simple as well as it must support the required functionalities. It is often observed that touchscreen phones are not desirable for the user community in Bangladesh as it offers a complex set of functions. We have considered visually impaired personnel in terms of physical limitations and the community who falls in the older age limit as our target community. Our user study has confirmed that the visually impaired user community here asks for a simple and functional interface. We have designed, developed, and deployed a simple system ifreePhony that captures the minimalistic features. We have considered both the elderly and the visually impaired community in our user studies. It shows around 36% reduction in search time and around 57% increase in text typing compared to a traditional phone.
Highlights
A large number of people are not able to take advantage of the recent advancement in mobile computing
The concept of user centric design is emerging but it has not met the unique needs of population with special needs
Touchscreen interfaces have become VERY popular over the last few years
Summary
A large number of people are not able to take advantage of the recent advancement in mobile computing. Our work does not try to provide the largest number of features; rather, it focuses on the minimal number of features required by a group of visually-impaired people in Dhaka, Bangladesh. They feel overburdened when various features are present. We have worked with a group of visually-impaired people in an urban setup who are pursuing their studies and are open to try new tools to enhance their lives. These users are willing to use a smart phone to take advantage of the positioning-and locality-based tools. We describe the solution approach and conclude the work in the given sequence
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